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ABSTRACT: Increased demand for medical or healthcare services has meant that nurses are to take on a more proactive and independent role intending to patients, providing basic treatment and deciding relevant clinical practice. This, in turn, translates into the need for nurses to be able to translate research and evidence into their practice more efficiently and effectively. Hence, competencies in looking for, evaluating, synthesizing and applying documented information or evidence-based practice becomes crucial. This article presents a quantitative study that involved more than 300 nurses from a large government hospital in Singapore. A self-reporting questionnaire was developed to collect data pertaining to evidence-based practice and activities, including those that demonstrate information literacy competencies. Results seem to suggest that the nurses preferred to use print and human information sources compared to electronic information sources; were not proactive in looking up research or evidence-based information and, instead, preferred such information to be fed to them; and that they perceived they lacked the ability to evaluate research papers or effectively search electronic information related to nursing or evidence-based practice. It was also found that more than 80% of the nurses have not had any training related to evidence-based practice.
Health Informatics Journal 03/2012; 18(1):12-25. · 1.00 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Evidence-based practice (EBP) provides nurses with a method to use critically appraised and scientifically proven evidence for delivering quality health care to a specific population. The objective of this study was to explore nurses' awareness of, knowledge of, and attitude toward EBP and factors likely to encourage or create barriers to adoption. In addition, information sources used by nurses and their literature searching skills were also investigated.
A total of 2,100 copies of the questionnaire were distributed to registered nurses in 2 public hospitals in Singapore, and 1,486 completed forms were returned, resulting in a response rate of 70.8%.
More than 64% of the nurses expressed a positive attitude toward EBP. However, they pointed out that due to heavy workload, they cannot keep up to date with new evidence. Regarding self-efficacy of EBP-related abilities, the nurses perceived themselves to possess moderate levels of skills. The nurses also felt that EBP training, time availability, and mentoring by nurses with EBP experience would encourage them to implement EBP. The top three barriers to adopting EBP were lack of time, inability to understand statistical terms, and inadequate understanding of the jargon used in research articles. For literature searching, nurses were using basic search features and less than one-quarter of them were familiar with Boolean and proximity operators.
Although nurses showed a positive attitude toward EBP, certain barriers were hindering their smooth adoption. It is, therefore, desirable that hospital management in Southeast Asia, particularly in Singapore, develop a comprehensive strategy for building EBP competencies through proper training. Moreover, hospital libraries should also play an active role in developing adequate information literacy skills among the nurses.
Journal of the Medical Library Association JMLA 07/2011; 99(3):229-36. · 0.99 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: A study was conducted at Singapore's National University Hospital to elicit registered nurses' attitudes, knowledge, barriers, facilitating factors, education, and training regarding evidence-based practice.
A 13-question survey that was administered to all registered nurses yielded 1,114 (75.4%) usable returns for analysis.
Findings showed that Singapore nurses had a positive and supportive attitude toward evidence-based practice but lacked the competence and knowledge to conduct it. Time constraints were identified as the main barrier to implementing evidence-based practice. There is a need for proper training, mentoring by senior nurses, and adequate time for evidence-based practice. Nurses with a higher level of nursing education who indicated the greatest perceived barriers tended to have less difficulty applying evidence-based practice but identified a need for more training in information skills.
Evidence-based practice is still in its infancy in Singapore compared with hospitals in other developed countries.
The Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing 05/2011; 42(11):522-8. · 1.05 Impact Factor
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IJOCI. 01/2011; 2:27-49.
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ABSTRACT: Web search engines are now major tools that people use to find information on the Web. Few studies have examined the extent and functionality of these Web searching tools that support Spanish-speaking users. Our study identified 72 publically available Spanish-language-supporting Web search engines. The research questions are the following: a) What Web searching tools are available to Spanish speaking users?, b) What are the features of these tools?, c) What are the current web search engine restrictions? d) What are the functionalities of multimedia Web search engines that allow searching in Spanish? The Web functionality methodology developed by Tjondronegoro and Spink was adapted and modified to examine the functionality of Spanish Web search engines. The findings include: (1) limited set of Web search features for Spanish-speaking users, (2) a lack of Spanish language interfaces, (3) lack of functionality in 18% of the Web searching tools examined, and (4) due to the high interest in Spanish language media, a need for multimedia Web search tools to support Spanish language users. Further research is needed to examine the needs of Spanish language users and the development of Spanish language Web search tools.
Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 10/2008; 44(1):1 - 19.
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ABSTRACT: The help information provided by search engines can facilitate its user's information seeking process or hinder it. This study analyzed 20 search engines on how their help systems are placed and organized. Help systems are separated into pre-search help system, and post-search help system, and six aspects of help systems were investigated, including navigation, design elements, technical help, conceptual help, terminological, and strategic aspects. A general taxonomy of existing help systems of search engines is provided as the result. The proposed taxonomy may be used as the framework to develop questionnaire for further study in stereotyping search engine users.
Information Technology: New Generations, 2008. ITNG 2008. Fifth International Conference on; 05/2008
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Fifth International Conference on Information Technology: New Generations (ITNG 2008), 7-8 April 2008, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA; 01/2008
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Fourth International Conference on Information Technology: New Generations (ITNG 2007), 2-4 April 2007, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA; 01/2007
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ABSTRACT: The objective of this paper is to explore the state of multimedia search functionality on major general and dedicated Web search engines in Chinese language. The authors studied: a) how many Chinese Web search engines presently make use of multimedia searching, and b) the type of multimedia search functionality available. Specifically, the following were examined: a) multimedia features - features allowing multimedia search; and b) extent of personalization - the extent to which a search engine Web site allows users to control multimedia search. Overall, Chinese Web search engines offer limited multimedia searching functionality. The significance of the study is based on two factors: a) little research has been conducted on Chinese Web search engines, and b) the instrument used in the study and the results obtained by this research could help users, Web designers, and Web search engine developers. By large, general Web search engines support more multimedia features than specialized ones
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ABSTRACT: This paper reports results from a study exploring the multimedia search functionality of Chinese language search engines. Web searching in Chinese (Mandarin) is a growing research area and a technical challenge for popular commercial Web search engines. Few studies have been conducted on Chinese language search engines. We investigate two research questions: which Chinese language search engines provide multimedia searching, and what multimedia search functionalities are available in Chinese language Web search engines. Specifically, we examine each Web search engine’s (1) features permitting Chinese language multimedia searches, (2) extent of search personalization and user control of multimedia search variables, and (3) the relationships between Web search engines and their features in the Chinese context. Key findings show that Chinese language Web search engines offer limited multimedia search functionality, and general search engines provide a wider range of features than specialized multimedia search engines. Study results have implications for Chinese Web users, Website designers and Web search engine developers.
Information Processing & Management.
